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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



has a Lobby in which he profoundly 

 believes will be dangerous in the sick- 

 room. The most important revolution 

 in medicine that has ever taken place 

 is that modern change of view by which 

 the practitioner leaves more and more 

 to nature in the conduct of his art 

 and, as a consequence, assigns an ever- 

 increasing value to hygienic considera- 

 tions. 



In regard to homoeopathy, there can 

 be little doubt that its practical influ- 

 ence has very much coincided with the 

 inevitable modern tendency to abandon 

 heroic treatment, and give nature a bet- 

 ter chance. But homoeopathic theory is 

 quite another thing. Dr. Bayard, in the 

 paper we publish, written to vindicate 

 its claims, says that "homoeopathy, as a 

 science, is the law of the vital force " ; 

 and, again, " disease is the impairment 

 of the equalization of the vital force." 

 But the most advanced scientific think- 

 ers are seriously asking, Is there any 

 such thing as the vital force ? or, if 

 there be such a thing, what is it? Cer- ; 

 tainly it is a something winch played a 

 far larger part in medicine when the 

 scientific knowledge of life was in its 

 lowest condition. Everything in the 

 organic economy not understood was 

 then ascribed to "the vital force." 

 Every step of physiological progress has 

 consisted in wresting something from 

 "the vital force," and explaining it in 

 some intelligible way. As physiological 

 problems have been resolved by physi- 

 cal and chemical principles, and taken 

 their place among the proved results 

 of science, " the vital force " is no long- 

 er invoked to account for them. Its 

 sphere has, therefore, been gradually 

 restricted, and its intrenchment is still 

 in the narrowing field of physiological 

 mystery. To ascribe an effect to "the 

 vital force " is now but another way of 

 saying that we do not understand its 

 cause. How the mysterious and the 

 inexplicable can become the basis of a 

 special and distinctive science is itself 

 something of a mystery. The article 



of Mr. Shipman on " Matter Living and 

 Not-Living " will be read with interest 

 in connection with that of Dr. Bayard. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Spencer's Descriptive Sociology: A Cyclo- 

 paedia of Social Facts, representing the 

 Constitution of Every Type and Grade of 

 Human Society, Past and Present, Sta- 

 tionary and Progressive. In Eight Tarts, 

 large folio. D. Appleton k Co. Price, 

 $35. 



We have from time to time made refer- 

 ence to this great work as its parts have 

 successively appeared during the last fifteen 

 years ; but, having now assumed its com- 

 pleted or final form, we desire to call atten- 

 tion to it as a whole, and calculated to 

 meet the wants of modern students in the 

 way of a valuable work of reference. 



As we have repeatedly explained, this 

 comprehensive cyclopaedia of social data is 

 novel in form, the whole work being planned 

 and executed with a view to the utmost 

 facility in getting at the multitudinous facts 

 which it records. Mr. Spencer had before 

 him a task of great difficulty when he at- 

 tempted to present the materials that are 

 descriptive of all phases of human society 

 within an available compass, and by a plan 

 that shall make them in the highest degree 

 accessible for reference, and at the same time 

 instructive for comparative study. After 

 long reflection and various trials, he was 

 compelled to adopt the tabular mode of ar- 

 ranging the facts, which necessitated the 

 folio form of publication, with very large 

 pages. This, of course, was undesirable, 

 but it was unavoidable ; yet, as the work is 

 one rather for consultation than for con- 

 tinuous reading, there is really an immense 

 gain in the plan chosen by which any one 

 of its multifarious subjects may be followed 

 out in its broadest relations with ease and 

 dispatch. 



Of course, the first thing Mr. Spencer 

 had to do was to arrive at a classification 

 of those elements and activities of human 

 society which are the objects of study by 

 the sociologist. These elements and factors 

 exist in nearly every human society, but 

 with the widest differences of form and 

 development. In low and rude communi- 



